LeeCH

TK, Hmm, not very high lah but still high lah. Hehe.....20,000ft with 60 track miles. Interesting picture. Thanks.

My rank is First Officer, initials wise is F/O. Please correct it. Thanks.

Now that is what I call a big big CB cloud. Compare the relative size of the 747 which is already so huge to it. We were just talking about this with my captain on the way back to Singapore as weather was getting a bit crappy on arrival. Great pics. Thanks. LeeCH

More attraction boys, One lucky visitor will now stand to win a A380 in full SIA colors (without rego of course) in 1:100 from a lucky draw contest. There will also be 38 other consolation prizes which is the same model but in 1:400 scale. Come come..... Chinaman rite? Must be 38 (refer to my post on Flight Logbook on the 3 and 8 numbers). Believe it or not, but Airbus named the plane A380 because SIA wants it so. Yes, last time this display will be held under the name of Asian Aerospace in Singapore. I triple confirm. Next Asian Aerospace will be in Hong Kong. However, there will still be a Singapore Airshow display in two years time. News is that all slots have been sold out too. Just a change of event organisers. Trust Singapore to have the cannot lose attitude, thats why SQ remains the most profitable at all times.

Triple 7 nose wheel camera is not located there. I am still sratching my head on this. Shame to be a triple 7 driver. Next time I drive a 300 series I shoot you some pictures where are the cameras located. TK, I give up, apa ini la?

Tony, Welcome to Malaysian Wings. Remember to catch me on SQ Triple 7's in MEL yah. Cheers mate. LeeCH

Blue Cone I see a lot, new engines........ Gold Cone? Maybe all the parts in the turbine except the casing is gold. Must be a very heavy plane huh?.....

That lever near the Milo drink is a lever used to open the no 2 window in case we need to escape using the escape ropes from the flight deck. The tiller is covered by the map. Hope this helps, LeeCH

OK something different here. Our first checklist is Before Start Checklist. TK, Flaps 5 for takeoff? We use Flap 15 here. Is it standard using Flap 5 performance limited that day? LeeCH

Azahan, Great shots. I always like rotation shots with details. This one is great, a dirty plane, gear doors just opening, an extended nose gear oleo and love those sharp engine nacelles. No wonder I saw two Saudi 747 on the tarmac when I was in KLIA two days back during my trip home. For a while I thought one of their planes grounded and the other was ferried here to pick up pax. LeeCH

Warh, LeeCH buy Nikon, LeeCH buy Lumix......I am confused That moneky is an adaption of the star in the movie of 'The Journey to West' starring originally by Dicky Cheung. Japan airfield are one of the best for spotting I suppose as they provide very special areas for entusiasts just for spotting. Not so great for landing though as all runway turns out to be crosswinds. TK, keep it coming man. LeeCH

TK, I earn and live and spend my money in Singapura. So not very rich lah. Some more got my toy planes 1:400 and 1:200 models) to buy and decorate house, want to set up a flight sim at home, want to buy a car, want to buy a DSLR, got a Brietling still paying for.....and the list going on forever.....sigh....no wonder it is true the more you earn the more you spend. But you keep teasing me with shots like that, I tell you very soon I will fall into it. Been asking around some SQ guys whom are into photography about Darkside vs Brightside. Ha, you guys get to use the long runway in NRT. We only get to use the short one. Heart always skips a beat whenever landing on that stupid runway. Always seems like the plane is not going to stop. Fly safe, LeeCH

TK, Lovely shots there. Seems like my night walk around shots are crap in comparison to your. Where you heading to lah on M771? Seems pretty good weather yeah on VVTS side... Looks like you got a manual humidifier too yah. Heading back to KUL next week for a few days. Meet up if you around. Cheers and fly safe. LeeCH

That is a full effect of a complete Reject Takeoff. Something that we do every six months on a simulator.

And oh I forgotten almost, no guarantees the CB will NOT follow me . Prepare to get wet.

Captain Radzi, Yes, it was Tuesday noon. We got a big CB sitting right on top of Runway 32L on my arrival at 1615L. We had to snake our way to FF32L. Some guys behind us were also doing the same. All came in with tailwind. We did an Autoland. When pax disembarking, one of them told the crew and say we did a good job landing the aircraft And we departed the CB followed us to 32R. When we are on gate C2 the CB must have been sitting on top too. OK people, My good F/O buddy (Malaysian from Port Dickson) is doing a KUL shuttle on 5th Feb (Sunday) with arrivals and departure both times in the daylight. I will try to swop with him for my shuttle on the 6th Feb as mine is on a Monday and one of the flights will be at night. This is to accomodate the weekend spotting crowd. Can I have a show of hands on which would be the preffered dates please? I cannot guarantee SRE ok... LeeCH

Folks, Some added incentive for those 'darksiders' and 'bright siders' to attend the event? An Airbus A380 test aircraft, decked in full SIA colours, will grace the skies of Singapore between 21-26 February. The aircraft will be participating in Asian Aerospace 2006, the region’s premier air show. The A380, the world’s largest commercial airliner, will be on static display throughout the duration of the air show at the Singapore Changi Exhibition Centre. In addition, Singaporeans and visitors to the air show will be able to catch the double-decker in flight as Airbus test pilots conduct daily flying demonstrations. I may be doing volounteer work for my pilot union to sell model planes (my next passion) during the event in order to raise funds for some children and cancer charity home. At present moment my roster says OK! LeeCH

Gentleman and boys, First and formost many billion of thanks to Azahan for taking the trouble to come to KLIA to take this wet photos. I believe this are the first set of wet photos on Malaysia Wings. Azahan, I owe you kopi and makan when I back to KUL in Feb. Actually we were initially asked to hold short to facilitate one arrival on 32R but tower changed their mind and asked us to do immediate takeoff. I was hoping I can see Azahan hiding somewhere but I think I saw a car in the hills. Or at least I can take some pictures while at holding position. You know the reason why the MH734 floated? Because there was a darn tailwind of about 8 knots on 32R during the takeoff roll. Which explains the concentrated body language on the cockpit. And the tail wind is not directly on my ass, its from a 45 degree angle. Plus a soak and slippery runway (although I must say the runway lights at that time was excellent). Better be safe than sorry. Azahan, I dedicate this set of pictures I had taken myself to you. I really feel bad you had to take pictures in the rain. Yes, I was actually hoping that it was a Star Alliance instead on the first trip but I only got it on the second trip. On my way to work in the taxi. First picture of the day nothing to do with aviation at all. Just a friendly reminder to all potential Asian Aerospace 2006 visitors from MW that Singapore is a 'fine' city it is. It is S$120 'fine' if you do not buckle up in the back seat. Taxi or 777, I always buckle up. Anyone want to pay my cab fare? Can see how much? RM multiply 2.3 OK? Some road signs near the airport. Notice we have a new building call Budget Terminal. Next time I take picture of it when taxi past (on a plane, not normal road taxi) on taxiway EP for departure on Runway 02C. its almost 90% complete and last heard no airlines signing up yet to use it. No aerobridges. And Singapore always rains. If you happen to be here on budget, I advise you to bring your umbrella. Talking about umbrella, saw some people selling Tiger Airways umbrella outside our SQ dispatch centre. Crossing line huh? Ah, the ever famous icon of Singapore. No prizes for guessing what and where is this. Why is there a brown golf ball on top of it? I have been there on a visiting trip when I was a cadet in 2003. Great fun to see all the heavies landing and taking off (more awesome seeing them retracting gears). It wasnt too long ago that I wish I was the one who call 'Positive Rate, Gear up'. Now I am doing it every other day. My parking gate today for first round pattern to KUL. F34 with LAT and LONG positions. Notice the faint green, amber and red lights. Just like traffic lights on the street. Not the Malaysian version of amber go faster, red go extremely fast. Red means STOP. Amber means slow down. The mighty claws of a mighty iron bird. And when she is angry and growling, you will see her belly button flashing in red. Better run away otherwise she will tear you into mince human meat with her almighty 84,000 pounds Rolls Royce blender. Even if you can run away, you will be blown away by this mighty hair dryer. Guaranteed you will never ever have balding problems since its a permanent dryer. No hair replacement therapy will ever get you back your hair. Zillion watts of shear heat power. Or you fancy yourself being a human kite? Try.... A small bird ready to leave its nest to bring food (Singapore Dollars) home for its owner (Temasek?). Small bird fly short distances. Even the fin has a white bird to proof it is a bird. And big bird fly long (ultra long sometimes) distances. Carry even more food home for its owners. And what the owner do? Share it with the pilots? You think so? Want to see my account? The bird brings a lot of worms to spend their money in Uncle Singapore land. Wait till the Casino opens in 2010. Even more birds and worms. Maybe my bank account will be better then,hopefully yah.... The Star among all birds, big or small. Just completed my walkaround when I saw this just landed on 02C turing off at E5 for parking. I am later going to fly this Iron Bird to KLIA. And later when I saw the technical logbook, it has just come back from the land of the rising sun. Operating as SQ994 from FUK. Azahan I was really hoping for this, anyway the wearther spoilt everything. Its OK in the end. Another small bird called Airbus A320 back from a regional flight. We wasted a couple of minutes to give way to our small 'brother' before we can start to taxi to runway 02C. Time wasted but not precious moments to take photographs like this for the benefit of MW members here. See la see la. Why must things go wrong when it is such an important occassion? Why must all the cats and dogs comes calling when I come landing? Why? Taken before I went to activate my phone and call Azahan. Merpati B737-200 tail fin can be spotted in the picture. Some ground equipment and gate C4 next to it. For the benefit of those who do not know, SQ always parked at C2. Can see KLIA charts and KLAS logo on the ground equipment? This shot was taken after phone call with Azahan. The tow truck was just coming in. See how heavy the rain is? Even the man in driving the truck is scrambling away from the 'cats and dogs' (Yes Attan I know why know). Needless to say I was wet and wet all over after the walk. Raining no pictures cuz mine not DSLR ho..... That's all for the day shots folks. Azahan thanks again and I owe you makan and minum ok? Look forward to meet all MW members wherever I go on my big iron bird. Night postings will resume on my Story of a pilot thread........stay tuned. Meantime I hope you enjoyed Azahan's hard work. LeeCH...

Gentlemen of the extraordinary KLIA leauge, Great photos you guys got there. Me wondering what is Valuair doing in KLIA. Diversion? Cannot be since Singapore whether has been fine. Kuala Lumpur here I come next on 24th. Thanks again for the wonderful pics. LeeCH

I got trade passes for this event. Hehehe.... I will be there on trade and visitor days.

All the increased capacity are for the dates effective March 06 ending on October 06 when the winter blocks come in. Yes, have not seen a PEN since June last year. Really looking forward to a PEN turn. I was in ADL about two months back. We rarely get ADL even with increased frequency. Usually PER and BNE appears on my roster every other month. I do not mind PER as they are plenty of nice food around. BNE very boring indeed. Then again its only my personal choice. As for the interior of the A380 and the B773 ER we are clueless as well. Only select people in the airline knows about it and they have to sign Non Disclosure Agreement. What can we do?.......Just be patient. Postings shall resume back to normal by tomorrow. Regards, LeeCH

With all these increase in capacity, it means a few things to my life. Less long stay in certain nightstops. ADL use to be a five day pattern with two rest days there, nice enough to rent a car to go sightseeing. photography and strawberry picking. Now it reverts to usual Australian stops. Minimum 24 hour stop. More turnarounds with CAN increased capacity. CAN is one of the dreaded patterns because of its long day. 8 hours flight time to and fro. Plus transit time of 1 hour. And add two hours to before departure. With the arrival of the B777-300ER in September and some manpower movements to the new A380 fleet end of Nov, we are going to be quite maxed out on all fleets. Better quickly plan my leave now. SIN-PEN vv is a hot sector. In fact SQ is planning to increase capacity over the CNY. Maybe spotters will get a chance with a 747-400? Schedule for SIN-PEN are SQ191/192 Departing SIN 0805LT SQ196/195 Departing SIN 1545LT SQ197/198 Departing SIN 1845LT Arrivals into PEN are 1 Hour 25 Minutes later on the schedule departure. As usual spotters, expect on time touchdown RWY 04/22 approximately 10 minutes before schedule arrival time. Returning sector leaves approximately 1 Hour after that. LeeCH

Sometimes the CGK flights on the A345 gets cancelled and changed to a 777 flight instead due to shortage of aircraft and the need to do ground maintenance works. And this is one we get called up on our standby duties. So far I have not been called up for any standby periods yet. Yes, and the reason for the A345 sent to CGK is to get the crew (both cockpit and cabin side) updated on currency issues (especially the F/O as I hear they sometimes have to get into the simulator to maintain their license). I am very eager to fly Airbus planes because of the technological advancements but the lack of hand flying and dealing with 15 hours or 18 hours non stop flights is no laughing matter my friends. I am quite happy to do SIN-KUL sectors on a 40 mintue sector. As for the most probably aircraft type to do the SYD-LAX/SFO flights, rumours are that the A380 will handle that. But in the aviation industry never believe rumours yah. And do not speculate too. LeeCH

In that case I think what goes around comes around. On another note I am quite interested to see how the SQ saga of operation to LAX out of SYD will developed. LeeCH

MW members. This is totally nonesense. I apologise if I offended anyone here. But I think Indonesians authorities are one of the most unfair in the aviation trade. I am not trying to side any airline here, but remember that they stopped some budget airlines operating into Jakarta from Singapore? MH operates three daily flights to Jakarta using A330. We in SQ operates no less than 7 daily flights into CGK using B777 (200/300) and more often than not all packed like sardines. How come never ask Singapore to reduce frequency? Sounds fishy? Is it because Garuda is one of the largest foregin airlines operating in Changi? Food for thought yeah. GARUDA = Good And Reliable Under Dutch Administration Regards, Leech